Crytek Purchases Free Radical, Says Company Scriptwriter

Free Radical staffer tells us his company has been purchased by the developer of Crysis.

Free Radical's Rob Yescombe just confirmed to 1UP that the recently troubled developer has been bought for an undisclosed sum by Germany-based Crytek (best known for the games Far Cry
and Crysis). This ends weeks of uncertainty about the future of the company, which many had guessed might be forced to shut its doors.

When Free Radical employees arrived at work at the company's four Nottingham, UK offices on December 18, they found that they were locked out, with a sign asking them to attend a meeting at a nearby hotel. There it was confirmed that the company had gone into administration, a process in the UK whereby companies can continue to trade while their financial woes are tackled, hopefully meaning that the company can be saved from complete closure.

On December 31, administrator Cameron Gunn of ReSolve Partners announced that although the developer would continue to operate, it would be shedding 140 staff. The remaining 40 employees stayed on at the company working out of one office. Gunn stated at the time that there had been "strong interest" from a number of parties worldwide for the developer.

Speaking from his local pub, Yescombe told us, "After seven long weeks of uncertainty, I can confirm that Free Radical is now out of the woods. We've been bought by a really, really good company." He added, in what was possibly a first for the outspoken writer, "I'm so excited I'm lost for words." Then he found some and continued: "It's the smoothest deal we've ever done. It all went through quickly, efficiently, fantastically..."

Yescombe said that he was unsure what the deal would mean for those made redundant on New Year's Eve, but that he hoped the company could ramp back up to its former size. Asked about what the team will be working on -- and specifically if this means we will one day see TimeSplitters 4
-- he said, "We don't know yet. We'll find out over the coming weeks."

We've contacted Crytek for more details, and to confirm from their side.

Comments (21)

Unfortunate terminal decline.....

Another sign of the decline of PC gaming as a mainstream AAA format. I think we're in the last two years of a meaningful single player PC games market, this delay is just one more sign of that.

Does anyone really believe the PC version 'needs more work'? Because I don't. I think Bioware knows that the PC version, will at best, break even, and therefore doesn't warrant it's own marketing/distribution spend.

I am a 20 year veteren of PC gaming, and have never owned a console, so feel I am justified in making my beliefs known. PC gaming is going to die by a meteor strike. It will die by the death of a thoussand cuts. This is just one more cut, that on it's own, won't kill PC gaming, but will join all the other cuts of recent years that will.

What are you people yaying about?

Crytek IS A GERMAN COMPANY, a place where they literally add a thumb to the L4D cover, then BAN L4D from the country. A place where they ban MODS ( SOMETHING A COMPANY HAS ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBILTY FOR) that have to do with gore...

@ orbit

That's not the same at all. 1UP employees were fired beCAUSE of the company that bought them. Free Radical employees jobs were saved and some that were already lost could possibly even be recovered beCAUSE of the company that bought them. The situations couldn't be more opposite.

Good

Eh...

Other than TimeSplitters, Free Radical has nothing of interest anymore. And after the abomination that was Haze, I've really lost hope that they can still push out a compelling FPS. Combine that with Crytek's (imho) average-level shooters (FarCry, Crysis) I'm really not excited for anything this deal could bring. Even if a TS4 comes, Free Radical has lost their sense of story and direction, and it will probably suck. Too bad...

Good Article

Anyway, this is good on two ends: One, Crytek now has an experienced console FPS dev (Time Splitters, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark) under them, and Free Radical is out of trouble and potentially has access to better resources.